[This story contains spoilers for season one of Shōgun.]
During Tuesday’s Emmys For Your Consideration event, the team behind FX’s hit series Shōgun reflected on the first season and teased what’s ahead. With the announcement that both second and third seasons are in the works, excitement is building as the series moves beyond the confines of James Clavell’s original novel.
Plotting Ahead for Season Two
Co-creators Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo have been deep into development since December, though not without challenges. Marks humorously noted they are at the arguing stage of development
, while Kondo emphasized the creative chaos:No, there’s a lot of chaos but creative chaos, where we’re throwing everything that we have at the wall, seeing what sticks. It’s been exciting and nerve-wracking because, obviously, this is uncharted territory—we don’t have a roadmap, we just have history.
Research Trip to Japan
Marks and Kondo recently traveled to Japan for research and location scouting. This hands-on approach has been invaluable:We’re trying to study his process of curation
, Kondo said.How did he curate, which events, which characters, which characters can you conveniently combine—those sorts of things that kind of allow you to make something new.
Darker Corners of History
Focusing on part two, Marks revealed their fascination with the shadowy aspects of history:There’s a lot of great conspiracy theory in history, a lot of different theories about, ‘Oh, it was said that this went on, but this really went on,’ and those little darker corners are what we’ve really enjoyed exploring.
The Spirit of Clavell
Star and producer Hiroyuki Sanada stressed their dedication to preserving Clavell’s essence:We don’t have James Clavell’s novel anymore, but we learned his spirit and the taste of storytelling. All his DNA is in our bodies, I believe.
Sanada further commented:I was passionate about bringing Clavell’s spirit and brush strokes back onto the screen with Shogun.
The Departure of Anna Sawai
Anna Sawai’s character, Lady Mariko, met her end in the penultimate episode. Regarding her potential return in flashbacks,They can do that. I don’t know if it’s necessary though. I don’t want them to write something just to have her in it; like it feels a little forced. I’m happy. I just want to watch it as an audience.
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